I am an (long time)EX- SETI user. When all these problems started (with regularity ) about a month ago I left, and now my two computers are crunching numbers for other BOINC projects.

I am amazed at the number of people writing here saying thanks for telling us what’s going on. They are only telling us what we already knew, it was broke, not working and they couldn’t fix it.

I am the Senior Network admin, for a medium sized international company, working out of Europe. I can just picture myself going to the Director of Information Managements office and saying, “Ted we have a problem, I’m going to work the network end and the data base admins will work the data base issues. In the mean time, I’m shutting down the entire network, and will be down for weeks or even months. Be patient and just keep trying to use it every other day or so” . . . LOL ! ! !( GO STRAIGHT TO THE UNEMPLOYMNET OFFICE, DO NOT COLLECT AN OTHER PAY CHECK )

Now some of you will be saying, “That that is a paid position with paid for assets and paid for full time workers”. True, BUT . . . IMHO wouldn’t it make more sense to limit the load on a network to what it can handle, and keep it up and running, rather than over loading a pieced together network, to the point where it is not running at all.

Here is an easy way for non-network types to understand it. Suppose you live near a forest. One day you chop down some tress, on your own, pull up the stumps, on your own, fill in the holes and level it off by hand. By using that road you save 30 min off a trip into town. All is good. You tell a few friends about the road and they start to use it was well. With the increased usage the pothole get bigger and road gets rougher and needs more repair. But you feel you’re doing a good thing so you keep making the repairs. Occasionally some one shows up with a shovel, and helps, but mostly your on your own. Pretty soon everyone wants you use your road. Pot holes must be filled in hourly, mud holes show up that must be filled in, and soon there is a two hour wait juts to get on your now, totally over used, totally tore up road. What can you do?? You can can’t build a new road, no money , you can’t hire someone to fix the road 24/7, no money. You simply tell the users to wait and be patient , that you’re working on, when you can.

Again . . . IMHO wouldn’t it make more sense to limit the load on a network to what it can handle, and keep it up and running, rather than over loading a pieced together network, to the point where it is not running at all.

Well I just thought I’d POP IN to see how well things were going ( and to TRY to get my completed SETI WORK UNITS that I STILL HAVE, to upload) . . . and for me, I felt I made the correct decision to move on to other projects . .
Just one more thing . . . something I learned working in the US Army . . . Signal Branch,

“The effective range on an excuse is . . . . ZERO Meters”

PS: ET, if you’re out there, PICK UP THE DAMN PHONE, before these guys go nutz !

Right under Eric's name it says "Project Administrator" Take a grain of salt and call me in the morning.

I run Einstein as well. They seemingly have a better group or configuration.

They have $$$$$$$$$$, Seti@home doesn't.

I worry SETI is just a part time job for some of your people.

No need to worry, it is a part time job! Not enough $$ for anyone to be full time.

A conference to discuss SETI and technology as well as whether the analysis path pursued is still viable or do we need a shift in overall approach to maximize the utility of you SETI volunteer corps.. Given a rudimentary analysis of Earth's radio frequency history (we go from Broadband Noise pulse generation to Digital Microwave inside of a 100 years) you realize other civilizations might only use RF for communications for a very short window in time. Even if the signals are floating around out there time coincidence is very unlikely and probability of intercept very low low indeed. Then propagation distance means any intercepted signals would be so far back in time that we'd be unlikely and unable to communicate back within any reasonable period to establish a comm channel.

Perhaps looking at advanced communication methods like lasers, or even neutrino emissions might be promising.. Don't know the answer only that our RF search has som many "depends on" that it's probability is very very unlikely.

Feel free to stop by http://www.gpuug.org/catalog and make a generous donation. We have a campaign going on right now to purchase two new servers for Upload / Download / BOINC / NTPCKR. You can also make a cash donation to S@H to support their general fund which helps keep the lights on. Both are tax deductible if you live in the US (and a few other countries.)-=Delty
GPUUG Webmaster
webmaster@gpuug.org

Here is an easy way for non-network types to understand it. Suppose you live near a forest. One day you chop down some tress, on your own, pull up the stumps, on your own, fill in the holes and level it off by hand. By using that road you save 30 min off a trip into town. All is good. You tell a few friends about the road and they start to use it was well. With the increased usage the pothole get bigger and road gets rougher and needs more repair. But you feel you’re doing a good thing so you keep making the repairs. Occasionally some one shows up with a shovel, and helps, but mostly your on your own. Pretty soon everyone wants you use your road. Pot holes must be filled in hourly, mud holes show up that must be filled in, and soon there is a two hour wait juts to get on your now, totally over used, totally tore up road. What can you do?? You can can’t build a new road, no money , you can’t hire someone to fix the road 24/7, no money. You simply tell the users to wait and be patient , that you’re working on, when you can.
...

Yes. Yes you do.

Traffic backs up all the time on overused roads. The road users learn that they either wait to use the shorter, overused road or they take another, less convenient route.

You not only chose to use another route, but also felt it necessary to honk your horn at those waiting patiently in line.

A network, much like a chain, is only as strong as its weakest link.

As someone else has frequently said "You were the weakest link. Goodbye."

I shall wait patiently for something that I believe in to recover in its own time. Meanwhile my insignificant machines automatically get to work a little harder for other causes I believe in, while they are not working for me.

I am an (long time)EX- SETI user. When all these problems started (with regularity ) about a month ago I left, and now my two computers are crunching numbers for other BOINC projects.

Well I just thought I’d POP IN to see how well things were going ( and to TRY to get my completed SETI WORK UNITS that I STILL HAVE, to upload) . . . and for me, I felt I made the correct decision to move on to other projects . .
Just one more thing . . . something I learned working in the US Army . . . Signal Branch,

“The effective range on an excuse is . . . . ZERO Meters”

PS: ET, if you’re out there, PICK UP THE DAMN PHONE, before these guys go nutz !

The servers that will be bought, how much are they and will more help?

I've read in another thread that they won't help much until they have a faster connection to the main internet connection for the campus, and for some reason, that faster connection must be installed underground.

I am an (long time) EX-SETI user. When all these problems started (with regularity) about a month ago I left, and now my two computers are crunching numbers for other BOINC projects.

No, you are a long-time Seti member who LEFT when the recent troubles started.

I am the Senior Network admin, for a medium sized international company, working out of Europe. ......

Here is an easy way for non-network types to understand it. Suppose you live near a forest. One day you chop down some tress, on your own, pull up the stumps, on your own, fill in the holes and level it off by hand. By using that road you save 30 min off a trip into town. All is good. You tell a few friends about the road and they start to use it was well. With the increased usage the pothole get bigger and road gets rougher and needs more repair. But you feel you’re doing a good thing so you keep making the repairs. Occasionally some one shows up with a shovel, and helps, but mostly your on your own. Pretty soon everyone wants you use your road. Pot holes must be filled in hourly, mud holes show up that must be filled in, and soon there is a two hour wait juts to get on your now, totally over used, totally tore up road. What can you do?? You can can’t build a new road, no money, you can’t hire someone to fix the road 24/7, no money. You simply tell the users to wait and be patient , that you’re working on, when you can.

Again . . . IMHO wouldn’t it make more sense to limit the load on a network to what it can handle, and keep it up and running, rather than over loading a pieced together network, to the point where it is not running at all.

And as a Senior Network Admin, you know that the only way to do that is to limit the number of participants and/or the number of computers they can attach to the project. This being a University-hosted research project, you CANNOT charge an enrollment fee (Toll Road, to use your analogy). So how do Dr. W and Eric determine who to force out and who to limit access to? Drop loyal, long-term members with older computers or Operating Systems? Limit all members to no more than, say, 4 computers and 4 GPUs? That will hurt some of the most productive, and most loyal, members.

Too bad you are not located in California. If you really wanted to help the project, you could volunteer your services. Maybe you could even get a tax deduction for it.Donald
Infernal Optimist / Submariner, retired

Darn! I've got this XPS 8300 with a Pentium Quad running at 2 Gig. It has already crunched all tasks it downloaded just before you went down Friday. Now it's just sitting here trying to upload, and download, so that It can crunch more. The only problem I'm having is the darned timeout when the computer goes to sleep. (:>)

All 4 tasks that were queued to report last night have been sent and there are currently 2 running and 4 waiting to run. I only have a dual core Eee on the job so it will take a little while. Good to see you are up and running again.We are a land of sheep and dairy
Here to be fleeced and milked

I am the Senior Network admin, for a medium sized international company, working out of Europe. I can just picture myself going to the Director of Information Managements office and saying, “Ted we have a problem, I’m going to work the network end and the data base admins will work the data base issues. In the mean time, I’m shutting down the entire network, and will be down for weeks or even months. Be patient and just keep trying to use it every other day or so” . . . LOL ! ! !( GO STRAIGHT TO THE UNEMPLOYMNET OFFICE, DO NOT COLLECT AN OTHER PAY CHECK )

Harry62 -

Seti@Home is not a medium sized international company. There is no real Senior Network Admin. It is a a few scientists, working in a small Lab, under a University. Their computer geek is a musician. Who do you fire? For what?

This Project has always run on a shoe string, and maybe running into a brick wall regarding the increase in computing power from the VOLUNTEER users. (Sorry, I always liked analogizes)

I do not know a specific solution, besides needed funding. But, let's not attack the VOLUNTEER scientists.